New Zealand Winegrowers to triple wine export to India, Asia by 20

Singapore, Oct 27 (UNI) New Zealand Winegrowers has launched a two-pronged five-year strategy to triple its wine exports to six million litres to Asia and India by 2012.

The company is currently studying the Indian markets for lucrative cities to launch its wine marketing programme, the Group's Director (Global Market) Chris Yoke told UNI at the Wine for Asia 2007 exhibition held on October 25-27 in Singapore.

Though the primary focus remains on Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Seoul, the New Zealand Winegrowers would follow up with marketing in major cities in India, Malaysia and Thailand, he stressed.

''New Zealand wines have a reputation for being one of the most expensive wines in overseas markets, hence their potential is huge in Asia and India,'' he said.

The increasing inclination of Asian consumers to drink wine with food is positive for New Zealand, as we are renowned for producing a diverse range of food-friendly wines,'' Mr Yoke said.

Thirty-three New Zealand wineries presented 94 wines at the exhibition, with India being represented by Maharashtra's Sigma Wineries Pvt Ltd at the three-day exhibition.

Sigma, based in Sinnar, district Nashik, has started exporting to Singapore since July last year, company Vice President (Business Development) Uday Yeole said.

The Indian wine has been well received with 3,000 bottles exported to Singapore in the past 15 months, Mr Yeole told UNI.

The company aims to supply 10,000 bottles of Indian wines a year to the Singapore, a major foothold to the growing Asian wine markets.

Singapore imported 12.7 million litres of wine in 2006, an increase of 45 per cent over 8.6 million litres in 2002, according to the exhibition organizers.

More than 4,000 trade visitors from 21 countries visited the exhibition of over 58,000 bottles of win from a wide range of countries including Vietnam, Moldova, Serbija Montenegro and Venezuela.

New Zealand expects to export 534 million dollars worth of wines this year, an increase of 37 per cent over 2006. Asian export is expected to account for 19 million dollars of this share.

Wine consumption in markets like India are expected to grow by a whopping 82 per cent per annum compared with Vietnam's wine consumption growth of 40 per cent and China's 38 per cent, according to wine trade forecasts.